Chapter 11 - Getting Out
An hour had passed and no progress had been made. All Lily had done was lean up against the entrance and pout. James sat watching her from the other side of the tower.
He finally threw up his hands in frustration and stomped over to her. "Since you're not going to say anything, I suppose that I should start. I jump to conclusions, okay? I heard Jess calling Malfoy your boyfriend and I got... carried away. I'm sorry, Lily. I really am." James reached out his hand to rest it on top of her knee.
An angry look flitted over her face as she wrenched herself away from him. "How dare you? You degraded me by yelling out to everybody that I had slept with him!"
"Look, Lily! You had a dreamy look on your face. You let him touch you without pulling away. You share the same Common Room for Merlin's sake! What the fuck was I supposed to think?"
Lily ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. "Let me tell you something, James Potter: just because I pull away from you does not mean that I pull away from everybody. We're not dating, Lucius and I, but if the offer was there..." she trailed off and looked away from James' stricken face.
"Well we both know that I jumped to conclusions."
"Damn right you did," she interrupted.
"But I want you to know that I'm sorry... for everything."
Lily snorted in response. "You know. If you had told me that years ago, then I'd've forgiven you, but 'I'm sorry' just won't cut it. You've done too much to me."
"What do you want me to do?" he snapped. "Because in case you didn't notice, we're stuck in here until we can get along and that won't happen until you forgive me."
"Forgive you? James, you're going to have to do so much more than just tell me that you're sorry. All the shit you've done to me, all those teasing remarks you've made... people can only take so much." A stray tear slid down her cheek before she quickly wiped it away, hoping he had not seen it.
Anger surged through his lithe body: anger at himself for causing her so much pain. "Remember the row we had where you said that you shouldn't be a Gryffindor?"
She looked up at him, her eyes beginning to water up again, as she nodded her head.
James moved closer to her and reached out a hand to comfort her and to see if she would pull away. "Lily, you are more of a Gryffindor than anybody else that I know. To take all of what we did and put on such a brave face to hide your obvious pain. Taking care of others' pain before facing your own. I only goaded them into pranking you and I only made fun of you because I liked you. I didn't know what else to do. You could almost say that I was afraid of what I felt." Her eyes narrowed and she slid away from him. James dropped his outstretched hand and sat down hard on the floor. "Think about it, Lily. I stopped making fun of you when I realized how much I thought of you. That's when I started asking you out."
Lily let out a loud sob, horrified at the fact that James was going to witness her breakdown.
Before she could protest, James wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his warm embrace. "Just cry, Lily. I promise that I won't tell anybody."
Shre rested her forehead on his shoulder while her fingers clutched tightly to the fabric of his shirt. He just sat and let her cry out all her frustrations onto his shoulder. When he felt her stop shuddering, James placed a light, gentle kiss on the top of her head. Lily stiffened at the touch, but did not pull away.
"Lily," he whispered into her ear, "I promise that when we get out of here, I'll make it up to you. I don't know yet what I'm going to do, but you'll know when you see it."
Mumbling something against his chest, Lily caused a deep, rumbling laugh to spill forward from James' lips.
Lily brought her face up to glare at his. "You laughed at what I said?" she asked incredulously.
"No!" he replied. "I laughed because you spoke to my chest, tickling it and preventing me from understanding what you said."
A smile broke across her lips and she giggled, a mischievous look in her eyes.
"What?" he asked as a look of horror crossed his face.
"James Potter... ticklish? This knowledge can come in handy."
"Psht," he sputtered. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't you?" she smiled at him and brought her hands up from he sides. "Well let me refresh you."
James opened his mouth to reply, but the only noise that came out was a long, bellowing laugh as Lily's nimble fingers found his ticklish spots.
"Don't play with fire, Lily," James breathed after willing himself not to laugh. "Because I happen to know that you're just as ticklish, maybe even more."
Her eyes widened, "Don't you dare, James!"
His fingers brushed lightly over her stomache, eliciting a laugh from her. James stopped instantly as she doubled over with laughter. "Can you promise me something?"
She looked at him, after taking a few minutes to breathe, and waited for him to continue.
"Promise me that you'll lighten up just a little bit. Laugh when we do things that are funny, smile when we do things that are stupid and make you happy."
Lily knew he was referring to himself and the Marauders and she sighed. He was going to give up a lot in an attempt to obtain her forgiveness... she could afford to light up a little.
"Deal," she said quietly.
"What was that, Lils? I don't believe that I heard you."
"I said 'deal' alright?" she snapped. "I'll lighten up!"
James jumped up from the ground and pulled Lily up to join him. "Yay! We're going to be such good friends, " he bounced around with a goofy grin on his face.
"Don't push your luck," Lily got out before James picked her up and spun her around, oblivious to how close they came to knocking Sirius and Jess over.
Sirius had his back up against the Astronomy Tower door and had Jess on his lap, straddling his legs. He gently pushed her away when he heard something through the thick, wooden door.
Mumbling a protest, Jess shifted her weight and went to kiss him again, but only met the warmth of his hand. "Sirius!" she moaned softly against his fingers.
"Jess!" he replied with a quick grin.
She pouted against him, crossing her arms and casting a glare.
"Don't you hear that? I swear that I just heard laughing."
"Oh so now you're hearing things?" she mocked him with a giggle that was quickly silenced by a noise clearly identified as Lily Evans' laughter. "Great Merlin, they're laughing!"
Sirius clambered out from underneath Jess and muttered 'Alohamora' in an attempt to get to James. As Jess joined him in walking through the open door, they heard Lily mutter, "Don't push your luck."
They watched, stupefied as James picked up Lily and spun her about, almost knocking them off their feet. Sirius' jaw dropped as James and Lily froze.
Jess smiled brightly at the pair and belted out a peal of laughter that echoed throughout the rafters. "It's about damn time you two made up!"
Sirius waggled his finger at James while Jess did the same to Lily. "No more pouting and sulking for you."
"And no more skipping classes for you!" Jess flew to her best friends' side and captured her in a big hug. "Let's go get something to eat!"